


Toper - Christmas Time

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1527]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22276981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Just because it's Christmas time, doesn't mean everything is sunshine and roses. Tony worries about Gibbs in particular. Is he out of control?
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1527]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15
Collections: 2020 Twelve Days of Christmas, The Writer's Guild Community





	Toper - Christmas Time

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 07/06/2003 for the word [toper](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/07/06/toper).
> 
> toper[ toh-per ]  
> noun  
> a hard drinker or chronic drunkard.
> 
> This is for Day 3 of the Twelve Days of Christmas challenge. Today's prompt is Fireplace.

“Have you heard what Gibbs' plans are, Abby?” Tony asked as he popped into the lab.

“No. Why?”

“No reason.”

Abby spun around to stare at Tony. “What are you up to, Tony?”

“Nothing, I swear.” Tony held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.

“You better not be planning anything dastardly against my Gibbs. I’ll make you regret it if you do.”

Tony shot Abby a wide-eyed look before taking his leave quickly, but hopefully not so fast that it would appear he was fleeing. That was exactly what he was doing, but he would not want Abby to be aware of her effect on him.

He made his way back to the bullpen where the rest of the team was going through paperwork while they awaited a new case. An idea swirled in the back of his head. He tried not to focus on it, but he couldn’t help remembering just how bad Gibbs had been when he dropped by last weekend.

Tony didn’t think the man had stopped drinking even when he slept that weekend. It was true that they’d just wrapped up a hard case involving the death of a child, which always hit Gibbs the worst because of his dead wife and daughter, but even still such behavior wasn’t healthy. Tony could no longer lie to himself. He had to accept that Gibbs had turned into an absolute toper.

He worried about his friend. He feared that if nothing was done, they would lose Gibbs. He was already showing signs that he wasn’t making the best decisions for himself, let alone the team.

Not only had it appeared that Gibbs drank himself into a stupor constantly last weekend, but the weekends prior when Tony had looked in on him he seemed insistent on doing the same thing. Tony watched Gibbs for any signs that his alcoholism was carrying over to their work, but so far it did not seem to have gotten that bad. Tony hoped that it would not get that bad.

He desperately desired for Gibbs to realize that what he was doing didn’t serve him well. Unfortunately, Tony suspected that Gibbs had long gone past the point of no return when it came to his drinking habit. He couldn’t help wondering if it was time for an intervention.

Tony didn’t wish to embarrass Gibbs at Christmas, but at the same time they would have more time off from which for Gibbs to sober up and recover after an intervention made him see the error of his ways. Of course, it was entirely possible that even an intervention wouldn’t be enough to make Gibbs change his ways. Tony tried not to despair that his friend might be too far gone to be saved. 

Abby worried about him plotting something dastardly, but in truth, there was nothing that he could do that would be more dastardly than what Gibbs was doing to himself. He couldn’t decide if he should invite Abby and Ducky and perhaps the rest of the team as well. Or if he should just keep it between Gibbs, Jackson, and himself.

He already had plans to spend Christmas with Gibbs and Jackson at Gibbs’ house. He just wasn’t sure if the situation was bad enough to warrant interrupting the Christmas celebrations to call attention to it. He supposed it would depend entirely upon how Gibbs behaved at Christmas.

Of course, it was still possible that they would catch a case and Jackson would end up spending the vast majority of Christmas alone in Gibbs’ house. It wouldn’t be the first year that it happened, after all. They still had a week to go before Christmas and anything could happen.

Tony shook his head to clear the musings and returned to staring at the cold case in front of him. McGee and Ziva should be typing up their reports from their last case for him to review, but Tony had already finished his reports and was mostly observing at this point in time. Something about this particular cold case was bothering him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. It didn’t help that his worries over Gibbs were distracting him. 

Before he knew it, Gibbs had dismissed all of them. Tony considered following Gibbs home simply to see if he went straight for the alcohol or not. Tony was pretty sure Gibbs took the term functioning alcoholic to another level these days.

He’d stalked Gibbs enough recently in his anguish and concern over him. Tonight, Tony headed home and grabbed one of his frozen homemade lasagnas to heat up for dinner. He flipped the TV onto a game and settled down to relax while he waited for his food to cook.

Eventually, he moved to the bed for the night. He was not asleep for long as his phone rang at 2am with a case. He sighed and verified whether they’d been able to get a hold of Gibbs. 

They hadn’t so Tony headed over to Gibbs’ house. He wasn’t surprised to find Gibbs on the floor, passed out. He filled a bucket of water upstairs before returning to the basement where he tossed it on Gibbs to wake him up.

“Wha?” Gibbs mumbled.

“We have a case. Get up and get dressed and I’ll drive you there.”

Gibbs shook his head and slowly made his way upstairs. While Gibbs was occupied, Tony shot McGee a text giving him the address and telling him to collect Ziva on his way. Finally, they were able to head to the scene a good twenty minutes after they were called. 

Tony sighed. This was getting to be too much of a habit. It couldn’t be allowed to go on. That settled it, he’d stage an intervention for Christmas. Perhaps he’d check in with Jackson as to who he thought should be included in such a thing.

First, they had to figure out this case though. As soon as they arrived, Gibbs immediately started barking orders and the team fell into their positions as natural as breathing. Tony started sketching as Ziva bagged and tagged and McGee took photos.

Despite arriving a good forty minutes late to the crime scene, they had still managed to beat Ducky and Jimmy there. “Any id on the body, yet?” Tony posed, even though Gibbs was normally the one to ask such things.

“This is Lieutenant Parker. We got his information off his fingerprint, but know nothing more.”

Tony nodded. He moved onto questioning the witnesses after finishing up the sketches. So far the general consensus seemed to be a hit and run. It was quite the tragedy and Tony wasn’t sure he actually believed the story he was being told. The answers were all just a bit too similar, a bit too pat. 

Still until they had proof, they must continue to investigate. It could be a hit and run or it could be a contract killing disguised as such or even premeditated murder. It was so hard to tell.

Tony hoped that Abby would find something useful in the evidence. They’d pretty much wrapped up everything they could at the crime scene. McGee and Ziva had been sent on with the evidence van after Ducky and Jimmy removed the body. 

Tony stopped at a coffee shop on the way back. He knew that Gibbs would need more than a dousing of water and a shower to wake up and shake off the hangover. Gibbs nodded his thanks as he headed inside to order a coffee, black. 

Tony didn’t bother following Gibbs inside. It wouldn’t take long for Gibbs to retrieve his coffee and Tony didn’t feel like pushing his luck. He pressed his foot to the gas pedal once Gibbs was back in the car without bothering to wait for Gibbs to fasten his seatbelt. 

They arrived at NCIS without much fanfare only for Abby to tell them that all signs pointed to a hit and run. They had tire marks on the vic, but they matched to a tire that was common to literally hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the US. There was no way that they could use that to narrow down their suspect pool.

Tony just hoped that Gibbs didn’t drive them to work on this case through the holidays. It wouldn’t be the first time, but now more than ever, Tony knew that Gibbs really needed the intervention and the holidays would be the best time for it.

It would take a miracle for them to find the vehicle that matched the tire marks on their vic. There were literally more possibilities than they could handle. Still, they would do what they could. 

Finally, the day before Christmas they were forced to declare it a hit and run without identifying who exactly hit the vic. Tony was just glad that they weren’t expected to work over the holiday. He’d already texted Jackson about his concerns and worries for Gibbs.

Jackson had suggested feeling Abby out about Gibbs’ behavior and inviting her over if she’d noticed anything. They’d both agreed that Ducky would be helpful, but otherwise they would handle it just the two of them. 

Tony knew that Jackson had come up early and even now was going through Gibbs’ house with a fine tooth comb. By the time Jackson was done, there wouldn’t be an ounce of alcohol left in the place. Tony suspected that Gibbs would be quite angry when he found out. 

It was such that Tony was tempted to ask Ducky for a sedative just in case Gibbs became physical in his drunken state. He refrained, but he did ask Ducky to bring his medical bag just in case when he came over for Christmas dinner. Tony wasn’t sure who was supplying the food this year. 

Gibbs had volunteered, but given his current mental state Tony wasn’t sure that was really the best plan. He didn’t want to be a nuisance, but he had no desire to go hungry on Christmas either. For now, he would wait and see what happened, but he was doing his best to prepare for the worst. 

When the day dawned, Tony selected one of his fancier shirts. He knew that none of the others would be dressed up, but Christmas had always been a dressier day in his family and it was a tradition that he wished to continue. He headed over to Gibbs around noon.

He could hear raised voices as he approached the door and wondered if Jackson had started the intervention early. As he grew nearer, he could tell that this was just one of their normal disagreements, however. They’d agreed not to taint Christmas day with the intervention, but both of them would stay the night and tomorrow they would all have a serious talk.

It would be a different kind of Christmas, but it needed to happen for the health and safety of his friend and wasn’t that what Christmas was all about? He certainly felt that friendship was the greatest gift during this season. It was one of the few gifts that would last the test of time, unlike most of the presents that people opened under the tree.

Tony had always found the focus on presents to completely miss the point of Christmas. Despite his concerns about Gibbs and alcohol, Tony was looking forward to Christmas. It appeared that Gibbs planned to make his famous steaks for Christmas dinner. Tony had never been disappointed by steaks made over the fireplace by Gibbs. 

Tomorrow would be very trying, but it needed to be done. Tony didn’t think that Gibbs would survive much longer if he kept up his detrimental behavior. Normally, Tony would have given Gibbs booze as a gift, but this year Tony had chosen some fancy wood that Gibbs could use to build something instead. 

He didn’t want to encourage any drinking when Gibbs already seemed to be struggling with the bad habit of drinking. Still that was tomorrow’s problem. He put it aside and focused on enjoying his time with Jackson and Gibbs. 

He’d not had many happy Christmases with his family, well really his father, but somehow the years that he spent Christmas with Gibbs or Gibbs and Jackson always made him feel like this was what Christmas was truly supposed to be. They chatted happily as they distributed gifts and dinner and generally shared their time and adventures with each other. His mind rested heavily on the planned intervention, but he knew it needed to be done. 

It may not seem like much of a Christmas gift, but Tony knew it would be the most important gift he could give Gibbs. No matter what happened, Tony wouldn’t abandon Gibbs to handle it alone. Together they would deal with his alcoholism and then Tony would be able to set aside his worry for Gibbs, hopefully permanently. That was Tony’s Christmas wish in front of Gibbs’ fireplace this year.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has no stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least no more stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> The 2020 Prompts are open now! Go forth and prompt me! [Click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2020/profile) to add your prompts to my 2020 Prompt Collection. Just click the sign up link. ;) I'm hoping to complete all the 2020 prompts by the end of 2021. 
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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